Human Events

On ‘Outing’ Gay Conservatives

The reason given by same-sex marriage activists for "outing" conservative gays is that these people are "hypocrites" who therefore deserve to have their sexual orientation revealed to the world.

Decent people instinctively recoil at the idea of exposing someone’s most personal sexual secrets to the world. Yet, many activists on behalf of gay rights engage in such behavior.

Movements are often better than their leaders — and the movement to treat gays as fellow human beings created in God’s image is a noble one — but to the extent that a social agenda can be measured by its spokesmen and leaders, gay rights activism would have to be considered one of the least morally appealing movements of our time.

It is difficult to identify a more morally repellent act — outside of violence — than "outing" a gay person for political gain. Yet, those who "out" gay conservatives defend their actions — and they do so by blaming their victims. The victims deserve it, the outers contend.

And why do gay Republicans and conservatives deserve to have the most private part of themselves revealed to the world?

Because, the activists argue, conservative gays are hypocrites, and hypocrites deserve no mercy.

But this argument is nonsensical. If the activists believe this argument, they do not think clearly. If they don’t believe it, then they "out" gay conservatives for another reason: They wish to punish gays who do not follow the leftist party line on same-sex marriage and other gay-related issues, and they wish to intimidate other non-outed gays from adopting conservative values on such matters.

Why is the hypocrite argument nonsense? Because it is a non sequitur. Gay opposition to same-sex marriage has nothing whatsoever to do with hypocrisy.

Why can’t a gay person oppose redefining marriage to include two people of the same sex?

Why can’t a gay person believe that it is best for children to start out life with a mother and father as opposed to two fathers and no mother or two mothers and no father?

Why does one have to be a heterosexual in order to make that argument?

Why is one’s value system shaped by one’s sexual orientation?

Why does the fact that one is gay and engages in homosexual behavior mean that he must advocate redefining marriage?

All of this is characteristic of leftist thinking — that one’s thought processes and values are shaped by one’s race, sex or sexual orientation. Thus, one routinely hears from liberal spokesmen that a black person who opposes affirmative action based on race is a traitor to his race, an Uncle Tom, and probably a hypocrite since he or she must have benefited from affirmative action.

We are told by feminists that men should have no say on the morality or legality of abortion since men lack a uterus.

And a gay who does not hold liberal views on all matters pertaining to gays is a hypocrite.

And, therefore, such people can be treated with great cruelty. Liberals publicly humiliated Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in ways no public figure of our generation had ever been humiliated because he was a conservative black. Recently, Bill Maher and gay activists decided to "out" a leading Republican, who may or may not be gay, because he had the audacity to dissent from the left’s views on same-sex marriage and some other matters regarding gays.

Why do so many on the left believe it is OK to damage the lives of gay conservatives? Because they are certain that conservatives in general are bad people, not merely wrong on the issues. And because they particularly wish to punish any gay or black person who dissents from the liberal positions on gay and race issues.

For the left, it is a virtue for an American to differ with American leaders, a virtue for a Catholic to differ with Rome, a virtue for a Jew to differ with Israel. But it is utterly unacceptable for a homosexual to differ with gay organizations. Such a person must be crushed. And the way to achieve that is by exposing his sexual life to the world. And then justify it by declaring him a "hypocrite."

Mr. Prager hosts a nationally syndicated radio talk show based in Los Angeles. He is the author of four books, most recently "Happiness is a Serious Problem" (HarperCollins). His website is www.dennisprager.com.